Kevin's Watch

I felt the same way about the McKillip story in his STRANGE DREAMS collection. Very nicely written but no particular substance.

One STRANGE DREAMS story that I truly loved -- still do -- is by Nancy Kress: "With the Original Cast". There's a story with both substance and magical writing. I've read several of Kress's others since then, and found the others extremely demanding. She's at least as smart as SRD, and that's going some!

Well, I took the Riddlemaster omnibus back to the library after finishing the first book. You still feel lost at the end, as if someone gave you directions to get somewhere and left out some steps. I can't describe it, but after putting it down, I couldn't have given you much insight into what was going on in the story. It was very top-layer; there was no depth to it at all. As I said, I will look at the later stuff and see how it is. For now, I'm curious about the Strange Dreams anthology. I bet my library does not have it, but I'll try anyway. thanks for the great tips here.

Riddlemaster didn't exactly churn my butter, either. I read all three, and thought it was ok, but it didn't make me want to go out and get anymore of her books.

Stonemaybe wrote:All of Tim Powers stuff is....interesting.... but the only one I think is a classic is Anubis Gates.

As for Erikson, he has his moments and some amazing characters and situations, but I begrudge trawling through kilopages of fluff for a couple of chapters of quality.

*running*










(*sharpers and cussers buried in my wake*)

*lobs another*

Take that, ya lousy bastard!

I love McKillip! Erickson ... neat ideas, but I wasn't interested enought o invest the time it would take to read all the stuff past book 1.

McKillip on the other hand... LOVE HER! It's funny, I find her Riddlemaster trilogy to be her weakest, but still packed with fantastic ideas.
i think what keep me coming back to her (and likely why SRD loves her so much) is her style of writing. It is truly like nothing I have read before: elegant, dreamlike, gorgous prose.

I have read about 7 of her books, but for me the best is "Shadow in Ombria" ... wow. .. this story needs to be brought to the big screen!...

SRD has good things to say about Janny Wurts, and I'm enjoying her 'Wars of Light and Shadow' series. Don't think I'd put it in the same class as Donaldson, though.

I love Patricia McKillip's work. It is lyrical and layered, although I must say The Riddlemaster Trilogy was the most difficult to get into and the least rewarding of her writings.

I also have a few Joseph Conrad novels on my shelf. I had no idea that Stephen Donaldson listed him as an influence until today. That moves them up to a must read soon.

I had just finished Bakker's The Prince of Nothing trilogy when I attended SRD's read Oct. 19th. The trilogy was highly recommended by Erikson and I found Bakker's style, in a way, preternaturally similar to Donaldson. I asked him if he'd ever heard of Bakker and was, rather, surprised when he said he hadn't...

I have Bakker's THE DARKNESS THAT COMES BEFORE, but it's among the many I haven't read yet. "Too many books, too little time" probably applies to SRD as well.